


The Honey of Thy Breath

by MrProphet



Category: Frankenstein - Mary Shelley, Romeo And Juliet - Shakespeare
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-22 16:36:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10700880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrProphet/pseuds/MrProphet





	The Honey of Thy Breath

**The laboratory, night**

_Enter ROMEO, carrying JULIET in his arms._

ROMEO  
Ho there, physic! Come out from thy shadows!  
‘Tis no Hound of God sent to seek thee out,  
But one mired in misery come to beg thee  
To work thine arts ‘pon my fair beloved!

_Enter VICTOR_

VICTOR  
Get you hence, reckless youth, and vex me not!  
Thy quest is wasted, thou knowest not what thou ask.

ROMEO  
I know that my love is slain, and without her,  
All life is darkness and hope turned to despair.  
My love, she was, and all my heart’s desire.  
Restore to me my darling girl, my wife,  
Else shall I raze thy dwelling to the ground,  
And ev’ry hound in the Almighty’s hunt,  
Shall Romeo of Montague upon thee loose!

VICTOR  
Threaten me with the flame of the Black Friars?  
Thou who hast from her crypt thy wife abducted?  
Thinks thou that they should spare thee for thy youth?  
Or loose thee in respect of gentle love?

ROMEO  
Thinks thou that I should care for mine own fate,  
Should my Juliet be torn from me?  
And love, as thou shouldst know is not gentle,  
But rude and boist’rous, and pricks like a thorn.

VICTOR  
Th’art twisted boy; thy course is blasphemy!  
Thou makest through excess a vice of virtuous love.

ROMEO  
So may virtue, misapplied, turn vicious,  
Yet my vice by action shall be dignified.  
And speak not thou of dignity, thou ghoul,  
Who has a hundred peaceful graves defiled,  
But work thy black, abominable arts,  
Restore this girl, whose grace the world ennobles,  
And for such service thy unholy deeds,  
Shall all by all the world forgiven be.

VICTOR  
And am I in quest of forgiveness or thee?  
Is’t my soul or thine thou wouldst unburden?  
Dost thou seek to have thy wife to thine arms restored,  
Or to hear her forgive thee for thy failure?  
Think not that I know naught of disappointment,  
Nor that guilt must be a closed book to one  
Who would to vile things give divine breath,  
And so the natural order revoke.

ROMEO  
Test me not, physician! My time grows short!  
Thou shalt restore my Juliet or else  
Join us in death, thy blood and mine mingling  
On my dagger’s edge.

VICTOR  
So be it!  
But swear this now, that thou art willing to serve  
From now until perdition’s reign arrives,  
As helpmeet and companion to a fiend,  
For so thy Juliet surely must become.

ROMEO  
A fiend, my Juliet? Thy tongue shapes falsehood!

VICTOR  
Dos’t thou not understand, my reckless friend?  
‘Tis not of thy Juliet I warn thee,  
But of this art, unholy and profane,  
Which shall by secret process restore thy wife,  
Not to godly life but to a state unclean.  
Art thou prepared to such a creature tend?

ROMEO  
Thou offend mine ears with such calumnies!  
Proceed and thou shalt see that Juliet  
By no black art of thine shall be besmirched.

VICTOR  
Then lie thy love down upon the table,  
And fix her arms and legs with knots most sound.

ROMEO  
‘Tis done, she is secure.

VICTOR  
Then take thou the wheel upon the gantry,  
Turn hard and raise the table to the storm.

ROMEO  
The wheel flies! My love in death is light as air!

VICTOR  
In death is she unburdened by woes,  
Yet be certain that with rebirth shall she  
Be bowed down by a thousand thousand cares.

ROMEO  
Enough of this, thou knowest not her heart,  
Which was of all hearts with love and joy.  
What’s next physic, thy wonders to perform?

VICTOR  
_(Aside)_  
What wonder is here save to wonder why  
Having once foresworn such diabolic works  
I should for mine own life such an angel wrong?

ROMEO  
Speak up! I hear thou not.

VICTOR  
Only let me gather the Promethean fire,  
See how it flashes from the burning wheels,  
Ascends the poles like Jacob on his ladder,  
And plays like a live thing from the sphere of steel!  
Ah, like this boy, love works within my soul,  
Yet mine is the love of learning and knowledge!  
Quickens in my heart rebellious desire,  
To cast down the walls twixt life and death and so,  
A torrent of light into our dark world pour!  
Now begins again the work of Frankenstein!  
Romeo, as thou love I bid thee now!  
Let God’s most sacred laws be cast aside!  
Throw the switch!


End file.
